Analysis on Beyoncé’s music video “Who runs the world… Girls”

In the music video, we clearly see a constantly reoccurring theme of domination, oppression, and freedom run throughout the video. 

Firstly, Beyoncé is shown to be riding on a horse and dressed in white. Although the horse is larger than her in size and at first it may, therefore, suggest that it is superior to her, this is not the case. In fact, Beyoncé is shown to be riding on the horse which shows her superiority over the animal. She is clearly breaking the stereotypical characteristics of how women should portray themselves in society. Furthermore, not only is the horse used as a tool to portray her power but also her position in society, horses are associated with upper-class citizens and therefore Beyoncé sitting on top of it shows that she is wealthy. Wealth is a key theme in the frame. Due to the fact that there is no male presence in the frame, it may suggest that she doesn’t require a male in her life to get her to a high and wealthy position in society. 

In the second frame, we see a woman lying down on a plank of wood in a desert-like atmosphere. The body language in the frame highlights how Beyoncé wants to enforce some change in society by not caring about how women should portray themselves. This is evident as the shot depicts a woman with bare knees and in “inappropriate” clothing lying comfortably. It may suggest that women shouldn’t care about what other people think of her, at least she is comfortable. 

The third frame highlights the positives of what the music video shows as well as the negatives. Firstly, some women are in red clothing including Beyoncé, the colour red suggests power and dominance which connotes that women should be taken seriously as well as the issues they present in society. Additionally, it is quite surprising that a lion, an animal that cannot be tamed is being controlled in the frame. The fact that it has little significance and the body language of the lion continually enforces this idea of female domination as it overpowers it. However, the body language and composition tell a different story in the frame. We see that Beyoncé is the only woman in the foreground and is focused in the frame, whilst the rest of the women are standing behind her and are replicating her actions. This may suggest that although the message may be about female equality, the fact that she is only focused tells us that equality should be for all women and not for one woman. Moreover, the women in the frame don’t depict what reality is like. This can be understood as all the females are sexually gratified to some extent and still appeal to the heterosexual male gaze. Most women in society do not dress like this and so it is showing a biased perspective. 

Again, in the fourth frame, we see Beyoncé in the forefront, but this time dressed up as a queen or an influential person in society. This may highlight that she has the ultimate power and may contradict her feminist attitude as feminism means equality for both genders and not for one. The fact that the women in the background are sexually gratified time and again suggests that she fails to recognise what the difference between equality is and power. 

Like the third frame, the fifth frame also shows Beyoncé taming hyenas which again reflects this controlling nature. It is quite hypocritical that on one hand she is enforcing this idea of equality, yet shown to be controlling animals, creatures that are vulnerable to humans to some extent. This clearly goes against her message of equality.  

The final frame shows that women are in control as they aren’t afraid to stand up against the men who have armed gear. This positive attitude does reflect a stand against equality but does not provide weight for the argument that Beyoncé intended this message to be created. This is because this continuous message of “who runs the world… girls” goes against the key feminism attributes that both genders should be treated equally. 

Overall, we can see that although Beyoncé attempts to create this atmosphere of equality, certain aspects in the music video contradict it and so it is more about female domination and the theme of superiority rather than equality. I believe that although it may certainly empower women, it doesn’t do it in the best way possible.